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Barrie Segal, the founder of ParkingTicketExpert.com and AppealNow.com, says: 'This is an increasing problem.

'I am always astonished that councils are so unforgiving when motorists make a genuine error — they are too keen on raising revenue.

Councils are bringing in mobile payment systems, as parking becomes more expensive

'At the very least the motorist should get back the money they paid to park, otherwise the council is profiting twice.'

There are many benefits to paying for parking by phone. You don't need to worry about carrying around enough coins and you can buy extra time without needing to run back to the car park.

Hundreds of towns and cities across the UK now use these systems.

RingGo, for example, is the largest major provider of cashless parking in the UK, with 128 local authorities using its service.

Sister company Parkmobile has 26 authorities signed up, and PayByPhone has dozens, too. All also work with private parking firms such as NCP.

Each system works slightly differently. Typically, you call the telephone number on the parking meter and read out the serial number, also printed on the sign, that identifies the street you are on.

Then you'll be asked to give your car registration number, choose how long you want to park for and provide your card details.

You will usually be sent a text message confirming payment. Most systems also have apps to download that mean you can pay without needing to call.

And often you can pay by text. There may be an additional administration fee — about 20p — on top of the parking charge.

Some systems keep a record of your details so you won't have to re-enter them the next time you need to park.

Traffic wardens can see if you have paid by checking a portable computer.

It is crucial to double check that the details you enter are correct because if they don't match you'll get a fine.

But human error is not the only risk. Mr Segal says another problem is that these mobile payment systems are not monitored rigorously.

Payment accepted: But Karen Bottrill, 62, pictured with husband Neil, was fined £50 after visiting Leeds for a training course in November

'In one case, a motorist was permitted to buy just one minute of parking without the system checking this was correct,' he says.

Brian Randall, 51, was fined £60 after using his mobile phone to pay for parking in Barnet, North London. He already had a PayByPhone account, so he just sent a text message stating how long he intended to park and £2.15 was taken from his debit card.

Yet when he returned to his car — within the correct period of time — there was a parking ticket on his windscreen. He found out later that the payment had been wrongly allocated to his wife Debbie's car.

Usually when Brian sent a text in this way the payment was automatically allocated to the last vehicle used — his.

Yet in this instance the payment was assigned to the car registered on the account — his wife's.

When the couple appealed, the council refused to waive the fine. It claimed the onus was on Brian to ensure he had paid for the correct vehicle. And an independent adjudicator agreed with the council.

Jobsworths: If the car registration number logged does not match that seen by a parking warden on the number plate they will assume the motorist has not paid

Karen Bottrill, 62, was fined £50 after visiting Leeds for a training course in November. She had called Parkmobile and paid £8.50 by card to leave her black Peugeot 107 for the day.

A text arrived to say her payment had been accepted. But when she got back to her car she found a parking ticket stuck to her windscreen.

It emerged that the firm's automated voice recorder had wrongly heard the final letter of her car registration number as 'S' instead of 'F', sparking the problem.

When Karen tried to explain this mistake to Leeds City Council, it refused to discuss the case — as her details did not match the ones that were held on record.

The local authority later admitted to Money Mail that it had made a mistake and waived Karen's fine.

Another reader told Money Mail how her partner, who is dyslexic, paid by mobile phone to park his van and returned to find he had been issued with a parking ticket.

He had mistakenly put two of the numbers on the parking sign the wrong way around — so his van had been logged as being parked on a different road in the town.

The council refused to waive his fine.

Caroline Sheppard, chief adjudicator at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, says: 'Common sense should be applied and councils should always consider waiving the penalty the first time someone makes a mistake.'